KEELY HODGKINSON
At 22 years of age, Keely is already one of the most successful female runners in UK history, confirmed with her gold medal win at the Paris Olympics
As a girl, Keely was a keen swimmer as well as runner, joining Leigh Harriers when she was nine. By the age of 10, she’d already established a streak of winning events, and by the age of 12, in 2014, she was already winning everything she entered.
When she was 16, Keely had become the European U18 champion in the 800m, taking the championship record in 2:04.84. This also gave her the England U20 record.
She set the second-fastest female U20 time ever in 2020, while still just 17 years old. This marked her international debut at senior level, and also gave her a European U20 record, of 2:01:16. This was also the year she took her first British outdoor title in the 800m – the youngest winner since 1974.
The rising star first dipped below two minutes for the 800m in 2021, becoming the first British women to set a world U20 record for over 30 years. She ran a blisteringly fast 1:59:03, making her the first junior woman in history to run sub-two-minutes in the indoor 800m.
Aged 19, Keely became the youngest ever women’s 800m European Indoor champion at the 800m. She also set a British U23 record of 1:57:51 at the Stockholm Diamond League. Not only did she win silver at Tokyo that summer, her time of 1:55.88 broke Kelly Holmes’
British record, as well as beating the previous European U20 record set in 1978 and the European U23 record.
In 2023, Keely set a world record for the 600m indoors, in a time of 1:23.41, at the World Indoor Tour Bronze in Manchester. She took 0.03 off the previous world best, which had been set back in 2004 by Olga Kotlyarova. She also broke her own British 800m record.
After her impressive silver at the Tokyo Olympics, Keely followed this up with two more silvers at the World and Commonwealth championships, and finally took international gold in the European Championships in Munich.
2024 has already been golden for Keely, with a European Athletics Championships win and that stunning gold at the Paris Olympics, as the first British woman to win a gold for the 800m since Kelly Holmes in Athens 20 years ago. All eyes on Keely!